Qualcomm sues Nokia - again

This time in the English High Court

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Qualcomm has brought the patent infringement allegations it has made against mobile phone giant Nokia to the UK. The US company has asked the English High Court to ban certain Nokia products and to force the Finnish firm to cough up damages.

Qualcomm's complaint cites two UK patents that Nokia is alleged to have infringed - rather less than the 12 US patents the company alleges Nokia has infringed Stateside. Qualcomm launched legal proceedings against Nokia in the San Diego District Court in November 2005.

The UK patents cover devices capable of supporting the GPRS and EDGE standards but lacking the capacity to operate on CDMA networks. CDMA isn't used in the UK, of course, and since both GPRS and EDGE are designed to work with GSM, an alternative 2G network technology to CDMA, we wonder if the patents are simply stating the obvious. It's worth pointing out, too, that the suit doesn't cover 3G W-CDMA handsets, which also support GSM and GPRS.

Whatever, Qualcomm reckons it has a case for Nokia to answer. It described the lawsuit filed today as a "geographic extension" of the November action, and one or both parties may yet ask the court to consolidate the cases into one. ®